Women have been snubbed, but his time it wasn’t the Oscars. It’s even worse, this was at an event fostering gender equality.

UAE came under fire after they announced the awardees of an initiative that was aimed to promote gender equality was entirely won by men. 

These awardees were felicitated with certificates and awards by United Arab Emirates’ Vice-President and ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. 

According to Guardian, the award categories included “best government entity supporting gender balance”, “best federal authority supporting gender balance” and “best gender balance initiative.” And, they were collected by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and finance minister, Nasser bin Thani al-Hamli, minister of human resources and Emiratisation, and Abdulla Nasser Lootah, the director general of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority.

As per the United Nations Development Programme study from 2018, UAE ranked highest for gender equality among Gulf countries. Although, UAE has a long way to go to make gender equality a reality.

It seems like Emirati authorities didn’t catch on the irony of this situation. Here’s hoping this turns into a hilarious SNL sketch.

But, people took Twitter did not shy away from expressing their discontent:

(Image Credits: Dubai Media Office’s Twitter)